I recently received at work a 10-disc box set of Victoria sacred music recorded by Ensemble Plus Ultra under Michael Noone I'm 3 discs in, and I'm in love. These are 1-voice-to-a-part performances (but the right voices), clear and warm and astoundingly accurate, some discs with early brass and the hymns at the end with a Spanish chant schola. It's not a "complete" Victoria, but the closest thing out there (over 90 works). "Our selection was guided by the following criteria: a) works composed by Victoria during the quarter century that he lived in Madrid, b) versions of works by victoria preserved only in manuscripts, c) versions of his works that had never been previously recorded and (d) works that involve the organ, wind instruments and alternatim plainsong" These were licensed from Universal Spain by DGG and offered at a special price ($100 for the set; now on sale for $75). It's not at all just rarities; the performance of Vere Languores is so limpidly beautiful as to be unrecognizable as the same work that so many amateur choirs have heaved and screeched through.
Michael is a good friend of mine and an excellent musician and scholar. He tends to run himself ragged going from Boston to Madrid, but we are the beneficiaries. I have his Victoria - Liturgia de Pascua en el Madrid de los Austrias, ca. 1600 disk in front of me right now.
Michael,I suspect that is Cd 7 of this set (starts with Laetatus sum, has Missa Laetatus sum, end with Regina caeli?), as these are all reissues. I'm cataloging it right now... most of the manuscript-sourced scores also made it into published collections, so I'm going with those uniform titles. So it's not as hard as I thought, but a lot of data entry. Still only into CD7, and I've been on the road every day this week.
WHAT A WONDERFUL LINK!!!!!!!!!! thank you thank you thank you. ive baught the victoria and am eager to hear it. (I just bought a bose cd player so you can just imagine...) anyway the next thing i know, im spending $800!!!! talk about a kid in a candy store....
just listened to samples of the victoria last night and it is every bit as wonderful as everyone says. im no fan of one voice per part but these performances are amazing. i skipped over and listened to part of the multi choral work with brass. amazing....simply amazing!!!!
Yes, Tomás Luis de Victoria is the Spanish Palestrina. What is amazing about Victoria is that he isn't as contrapuntal as Palestrina et al., so he retains more of a plainchant feel, yet there is a great beauty and clarity (esp. of the text) in this simplicity.
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